I always knew Chibnall has it in him to inject some Drama back into Doctor Who...

...Well, the Doctor Who fanbase anyway.

Still I'm positive and excited - It's about time we had a female Doctor, and the groundwork had been laid by Moffat. The show has had a lot of bad viewership ratings since Capaldi took the helm - not that this is his doing, arguably this is more to do with the way an audience watches shows these days )not live and on demand/or catchup) - I personally find him to be the best of what Moffat has given us.

The BBC probably think they have a winner here too - I mean, not only did they cast a female Doctor - but quite a good looking one - much ado to the fangirls of the Tennent era, but this could very well capture a lot of - ahem - "blokes" attention onto the show. But on the flipside they'll also target a new demographic altogether because in casting a female in what has typically been a male dominant role for the last 53 years will be seen as a positive and empowering statement in a lot of ways for the female audience - and why the hell not! Sure we've had empowering (and mostly badly written) women in Doctor Who via River Song, Amy Pond, Clara etc... but this is The Doctor... an icon of British Television. So long as he writes The Doctor as The Doctor (and who hasn't - it's in the hands of the writers voice) then I think we'll be fine.

Of course, so far the who fanbase seem to be split between the sexist backwords sweary gobber type fans who would prefer each episode to start with a girl screaming before the title sequence, and the forward thinking fans who are ready to embrace the change. So yeah, real Drama there!

happy to have a female doctor, the show needs a kick up the angel delight side and hopefully this will freshen things up a bit. i think ultimately the new writer is a more important change but Ive never seen anything in particular by him and im too scared to now in case he turns out to be awful.

but, I have seen lady whittacker in something before, namely Sky's extremely misguided attempt at making a drama about the fire service called "the smoke". maybe after recent events it's harder to laugh at this show, but i did really enjoy it at the time in a "so bad it's good" way. however I also fostered a searing hatred for everyone involved because it was just so bad.

so I'm not sure how I'll adapt to the new actress but if anyone wants a preview of her saying really badly written lines in a shoddily put together story with ridiculous pretensions of emotional depth, then "the smoke" is what you need to torrent.

I liked the finale, intrigued by the new Doctor, and I'm looking forward to the Christmas special. I'll admit that it wasn't that long ago that I didn't like the idea of a female Doctor, mainly because I felt it would feel too much like a publicity stunt, but I think actually seeing Time Lords switching gender in practice (with Missy and that Time Lord General in the last season finale) was a major factor in me accepting it.

Just please, please, please don't have another companion fall in love with the Doctor. At least Bill being gay made that an impossibility with Capaldi.

Just please, please, please don't have another companion fall in love with the Doctor. At least Bill being gay made that an impossibility with Capaldi.

That really annoyed me, it felt like the only reason Bill wasn't just going to fall for the Doctor as with every other companion was that she was gay. Like they'd had to make a gay character to prevent it.

<Kaeetayel> Go for a team entirely composed of Eeveelutions
<Princess> that's effort
<Princess> I need to buy the stones/go to rocks/make them happy/touch Eevee
<Kaeetayel> The last one doesn't sound too bad

So I was just re-watching The Time of The Doctor (not really sure why to be honest - it's an hour too short (more time on Trenzalore is needed to build some more emotional investment as to why the Doctor is there, not to mention a great one-shot companion character in Handles was a missed opportunity)... But regardless I felt it was still great send-off Story for Matt, his final words as The Doctor were pretty expertly written by Steven Moffat (because if we're honest here, despite some of the story short-comings over his era - he still knows how to write the main character with such reverence and brilliance). I kind of felt a slight more appreciation for the style they went for watching this episode - The Fairy Tale element of the Eleventh Doctor's adventures always irked me from the beginning - but this makes me want revisit his series from the beginning to give it another try, maybe I'll find some new-found appreciation. who Knows.

ANYWAY.

This then made me want to watch some regeneration sequences on from previous Doctor's again (because... geek), and I eventually wound up back at Capaldi's final scene on the frozen planet from this series. And I realised something important when watching The 1st Doctor entering the scene...

Now firstly, I think we all figured this story (at least at the beginning) might take place at the end of The Tenth Planet from The 1st Doctor's last story - The Comic-Con trailer almost certainly confirms this as we see the region energy emanating from an old and weary 1st Doctor's hand.

But what I realised is that during 1 and 12's meeting The 1st Doctor is NOT repeating/speaking back The 12th's lines back to him when 12 is screaming about not wanting to change. It seems like it at first... as it appears The 1st Doctor is mocking him for being so adamant... however if you watch more closely he says:

"I will not change, I will not change. No no no no no, this is ridiculous!"

And then it dawned on me that he doesn't even realise 12 is there until he speaks out to him again.

Yes, the 1st Doctor is talking to HIMSELF when he enters the scene, he doesn't want to change either - and for his Doctor this would make sense - it's his first time. I think this story is going to be a nice parallel/mirror image tale in which 12 has to prove to his 1st incarnation 1 why regeneration and continuing on is important and is nothing to be afraid of (thus self answering his own morality and life issues in the process) before he regenerates himself.

It's certainly a very Moffat thing to do - and he gets to play with lore & canon one last time - after all the 1st Doctor went missing briefly before he regenerated at the end of his final episode - so this is the story of what happened to him and inspired him to continue on his path laid before him.

I'm positive we'll see Moffat incorporate Gallifrey being saved from back in Day of The Doctor as well (after all the signal of being called to arms HAS to begin with The First Doctor and ends with The Twelfth as we've seen) - which would tie a nice little bow up for viewing continuity purposes as well.

But what I realised is that during 1 and 12's meeting The 1st Doctor is NOT repeating/speaking back The 12th's lines back to him when 12 is screaming about not wanting to change. It seems like it at first... as it appears The 1st Doctor is mocking him for being so adamant... however if you watch more closely he says:

"I will not change, I will not change. No no no no no, this is ridiculous!"

And then it dawned on me that he doesn't even realise 12 is there until he speaks out to him again.

Yes, the 1st Doctor is talking to HIMSELF when he enters the scene, he doesn't want to change either - and for his Doctor this would make sense - it's his first time.

No offence, but I thought that this was quite clearly the intention of that scene; like it seemed obvious that this was the case

Thanks to yung Kriken for the sig and avatar (asuka best girl)MALDeviantart (trying to be more active nowadays, views are always appreciated) UPDATED 21/06/17

But what I realised is that during 1 and 12's meeting The 1st Doctor is NOT repeating/speaking back The 12th's lines back to him when 12 is screaming about not wanting to change. It seems like it at first... as it appears The 1st Doctor is mocking him for being so adamant... however if you watch more closely he says:

"I will not change, I will not change. No no no no no, this is ridiculous!"

And then it dawned on me that he doesn't even realise 12 is there until he speaks out to him again.

Yes, the 1st Doctor is talking to HIMSELF when he enters the scene, he doesn't want to change either - and for his Doctor this would make sense - it's his first time.

No offence, but I thought that this was quite clearly the intention of that scene; like it seemed obvious that this was the case

None taken. ^^;

But if I'm honest I understood that it was likely to be set on The 1st Doctor's Final Adventure - i gather that from the setting as I'm aware of the history... but I personally think the scene itself was played intentionally for it to be taken as a swerve to the audience that The 1st Doctor is talking to himself when he's actually talking to himself (if you catch my meaning). We aren't supposed to realise this (apart from clever ones) - because really it's of no benefit to the end of this story or as a tease to introduce the idea of a regenerating 1st Doctor at the end of the finale episode (especially by playing it so vaguely) - that makes no sense. So he's played it like so that it falsely appears it's an interaction of 1 telling off 12 when in fact they're both experiencing having the exact same situation. Well done on you picking it up though - because I sure didn't straight off.

Moffat likely will use this as a reveal/twist for us to find out The 1st Doctor is on his last legs at some point in the episode and reshow this same scene from The 1st Doctor's perspective... Either right at the beginning or near the middle I suspect.

But yeah, I know the majority have figured it out by now anyway via clues and well, as ever the Beeb giving too much away in trailers - those blumin' regen particles are everywhere in the trails these days.

I took away that it was the first not wanting to regenerate off the bat too. Even as an echo, it seemed clear he wasn't addressing the twelth or taunting him, especially when it's framed that he (first) doesn't know he's (twelth) himself or even a timelord. The point of the teaser in the finale was to show that more than anything. I don't know why you'd read into it that it was the first telling off the twelth, I didn't see any element of that in there.

This then made me want to watch some regeneration sequences on from previous Doctor's again (because... geek), and I eventually wound up back at Capaldi's final scene on the frozen planet from this series. And I realised something important when watching The 1st Doctor entering the scene...

Now firstly, I think we all figured this story (at least at the beginning) might take place at the end of The Tenth Planet from The 1st Doctor's last story - The Comic-Con trailer almost certainly confirms this as we see the region energy emanating from an old and weary 1st Doctor's hand.

But what I realised is that during 1 and 12's meeting The 1st Doctor is NOT repeating/speaking back The 12th's lines back to him when 12 is screaming about not wanting to change. It seems like it at first... as it appears The 1st Doctor is mocking him for being so adamant... however if you watch more closely he says:

"I will not change, I will not change. No no no no no, this is ridiculous!"

And then it dawned on me that he doesn't even realise 12 is there until he speaks out to him again.

Yes, the 1st Doctor is talking to HIMSELF when he enters the scene, he doesn't want to change either - and for his Doctor this would make sense - it's his first time. I think this story is going to be a nice parallel/mirror image tale in which 12 has to prove to his 1st incarnation 1 why regeneration and continuing on is important and is nothing to be afraid of (thus self answering his own morality and life issues in the process) before he regenerates himself.

It's certainly a very Moffat thing to do - and he gets to play with lore & canon one last time - after all the 1st Doctor went missing briefly before he regenerated at the end of his final episode - so this is the story of what happened to him and inspired him to continue on his path laid before him.

I'm positive we'll see Moffat incorporate Gallifrey being saved from back in Day of The Doctor as well (after all the signal of being called to arms HAS to begin with The First Doctor and ends with The Twelfth as we've seen) - which would tie a nice little bow up for viewing continuity purposes as well.

If it's any consolation to you I didn't imagine this so now what you're saying makes a lot of sense.

So Class completely got axed this week then - and none seems to care - but then, did anyone even watch it or know it existed?

I do hate it when this happens to show which ends its series on multiple cliffhangers. I hate it even moreso that Class was really good (at least better than Series 10 of DW IMO anyway) and was shaping up to be even better on a second series run with the Weeping Angels revealed as the pull stringers behind the scenes. It didn't deserve to go... but then it didn't deserve the BBC's neglect either of popping it on a brand new Online only BBCThree to never be seen before negating it to the graveyard time-slot for a repeat on their mainstream channel months later with little advertisement.

Overall I like it! Very Joseph and his technicolor dreamcoat vibe, I think the trouser braces making a comeback and the slightly too baggy clothes makes sense for the doctor since it's his first female transition. Took a while for me to get used to the coat... at an initial glance it looks like a futuristic lab coat you'd like hanging off a character from Star Trek: the next generation. However it is opened out and has a massive hood - and I think The Doctor really pictures better with a hooded wardrobe item in my opinion, especially given recent trends.